Boxing Champion Audley Harrison grew up in a broken home in a tough part of London. By the age of 17 he had been expelled from schools and ended up in juvenile detention. Relying on willpower, he turned his life around, becoming a university graduate and a boxing sensation. Harrison, who is retired and lives […]
Videos
Related content
Former Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medallist, Audley Harrison
TV Celebrity and actor, Josh Patterson
TV personality and former professional sportsman Josh Patterson looks as if he has it all — but it hasn’t always been like that. When his dream of making a career as a rugby player didn’t work out as he’d hoped, he was left in a dark place. He’d struggled with his mental attitude to the […]
Fitness & Health Influencer, Steph Elswood
Steph Elswood trained as a dancer from a young age. She felt under pressure to compete with her peers and wanted to be the ‘skinny girl’. But seeing food as the enemy left her ill and suffering from panic attacks. Counselling and learning to cook creative and healthy food has brought her a new attitude […]
Beauty and wellbeing influencer, Roxie Nafousi
Beauty blogger Roxie Nafousi says she has a love-hate relationship with social media. When she was younger, bullying at school left her with problems with body image, extreme dieting and obsessive behaviour. Roxie’s learned that eating well and exercising sensibly works for her. ‘Yoga has saved me’ and everyone should try it, Roxie recommends. And […]
Reality TV Star & Influencer, Emily Warburton Adams
Before Emily Warburton Adams began to travel the world on superyachts and appear on TV programmes, her recovery from eating disorders was a long, hard climb. She spent her teenage years being treated for anorexia. It wasn’t until she entered her first adult inpatient unit at 18 that she found CBT worked for her. Small […]
Hammering it Out – The Bipolar Blacksmith, Bex Simon
Bipolar Blacksmith Becoming a blacksmith saved Bex Simon from succumbing to bipolar disorder. In fact, the illness laid the foundations for her blacksmith business. Praised for her unusual and spectacularly artistic designs, Simon has been off medication since 2009, and lives with her husband and two children. She uses her illness ‘by building like a […]
Team GB Olympic athlete, Jack Green
Team GB Olympic Athlete When 20-year old Jack Green stumbled over a hurdle during the 2012 London Olympics, his dream and his mind exploded. ‘I couldn’t do one run without feeling awful.’ Green descended into depression, contemplating suicide. During an 18-month break he learned to control his self-destructive perfectionism. ‘I never fell out of love […]
Former Politician & Mental Health Campaigner, Alastair Campbell
Tony Blair’s Former Press Secretary We all know him as former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s communications maestro. What most of us don’t know is that Alastair Campbell suffers from on-and off depression. In his late twenties he had a severe nervous breakdown, which landed him in police custody and in hospital. Believing his experiences gave him […]
The Stigma of Bipolar, Thomas Duncan Bell
The Bipolar Businessman In many ways Thomas Duncan Bell is like any other entrepreneur: he runs successful businesses, is driven and ambitious. In his early twenties, however, he was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, after entering a local police station bleeding, pleading for help. He still occasionally suffers, yet is also directing his rather impressive […]
Bestselling US Author and Academic, Andrew Solomon
Writer, Lecturer and Activist Award-winning journalist Andrew Solomon always thought he was tough. But a series of losses, including the assisted suicide of his cancer-suffering mum, plunged him into a deep depression, which then morphed into ripping anxiety. ‘It was eating me alive.’ Driven to try and understand his condition, Solomon interviewed numerous fellow sufferers […]
Chat Show Presenter & Mindfulness Author, Ruby Wax OBE
Entertainer, Mental Health Activist, Author of “Frazzled” Having suffered bouts of depression from age 13, it wasn’t until after the birth of her first daughter that world-famous comedian Ruby Wax realized it was ‘not a virus’. Multiple institutionalizations, an MA in Mindfulness, and two books later, Wax now tours with her searingly funny and personal account […]
Badminton Blues, Gail Emms MBE
Badminton champion Gail Emms was at the top of her game when she started hating it. But she saw talking about that ‘as a weakness’. Coming from a sporty family, Emms had started playing badminton aged four. When the former badminton World Champion and Olympic silver medallist eventually retired in 2008, she spiralled into bouts […]